


Flirting with Ravenclaws

by Kiertorata



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Academia, Coffee Shops, F/F, Sapiosexuality
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-21
Updated: 2017-07-21
Packaged: 2018-12-05 00:35:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,663
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11566653
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kiertorata/pseuds/Kiertorata
Summary: Academic witches do their academic thing. Sapiosexuality and coffee shops.





	Flirting with Ravenclaws

**Author's Note:**

  * For [flipflop_diva](https://archiveofourown.org/users/flipflop_diva/gifts).



> Written for the rarepair_shorts Summer Wishlist event 2017 with the prompts "forced to work together" and "hate turns to love". Thanks to Lena for the beta read!

_Coffee after lunch?_

The note was written in handwriting impeccable enough to look like it came out of a typewriter. As if that was not annoying enough, it was signed with a little heart that said “love, Hermione”.

“Lovely,” Padma muttered before she crumpled up the note and threw it into the bin. It vanished as it hit the bottom.

What was Hermione Granger doing sending her notes for anyway? It’s not like they were friends at Hogwarts. They had worked on a couple Arithmancy projects together, but that was only because neither of them had wanted to work with Malfoy and that had left only one reasonable option.

Maybe it was some strange social protocol that Gryffindors adopted in a new work place. Padma wouldn’t know; social situations had never been her strength. What she did know was that she had no desire to get to know Hermione better. War hero or not, the girl had been rule-breaking, loudmouthed and opinionated at school, and the worst part: she had beat Padma in all her subjects.

At noon, because she was a pathetic individual who couldn’t say no, Padma found herself sitting in a nearby café with a steaming cup of mocha latte in her hand. Hermione had ambushed her in the Academy canteen, looking delighted at seeing her.

“How are you?” Hermione said, joining her at the table with a mug of tea in hand. She brushed a lock of brown, curly hair from her face, revealing a brilliant smile and cheeks flushed by the warmth of the café after the crisp October weather.

“Fine,” Padma said curtly. She sipped her drink and watched the other woman. Hermione had always been effortlessly beautiful.

“I always wanted to get to know you better at Hogwarts. It’s nice to be working with you now,” Hermione said.

It was all very well for Hermione to butt into the Academy to study what was considered Padma’s speciality, but did she have to be so nice about it in addition? Padma wondered if she was expected to say something, but before she had time to sputter anything awkward and decidedly untrue, Hermione opened her mouth again.

“I read your recent paper on the common misconceptions on elf magic. I think it’s brilliant how you debunked so many of Ashworth’s principles,” she said. “His paper in 1839 was ground-breaking at the time, but it’s unbelievable how many of his claims had no empirical evidence!”

“Yes, well it’s not so amazing to think of how much you can get away with when you are a man in the nineteenth century. Or when no-one is interested in your research topic,” Padma said dryly. She glanced at the clock on the wall behind Hermione and wondered how soon it would be socially acceptable to return to her work. She had been in the middle of something important, possibly a breakthrough.

“It really is preposterous how little elves have been studied considering what their role has been in the wizarding society for centuries,” Hermione agreed, wrinkling her nose in disdain. “All the misinformation has only helped to uphold current power structures and the incredibly archaic notion that elves are supposedly inferior to wizards.”

“What’s your research topic?” Padma said, tapping her nails against her now half-empty cup. She had avoided the question ever since Hermione had joined their research group two weeks ago, but she supposed now was as good a time as ever to find out. It wasn’t that Padma wasn’t interested; quite the opposite. She knew she was being pathetic and immature, but she couldn’t help being a little jealous over her field of study.

Parvati and Lavender didn’t jest when they said Padma was married to her job. She really was a textbook example of a Ravenclaw.

“My grant is for the study of the experiences and oppression of house elves in old pureblood tradition, but I’d love to include a post-war perspective,” Hermione said, waving excitedly with her hands as she spoke. Her cup of tea lay on the table forgotten. “I’m struggling to put together a conceptual framework, however, as the prior research is, well, you know, non-existent. So currently I’m just gathering data.”

“And what’s your method for that?” Padma said somewhat more intently than she had intended. She placed her cup absently onto the table and subconsciously leaned forward. Hermione’s topic was very different from Padma’s, who focused on the biology and magic of elves.

“I’m interviewing elves previously or currently in the service of pureblood families,” Hermione said. “But I’d also like to make use of some of the statistical data available in the Academy.”

 _Interviews_ , Padma mused. Hermione’s research method too was very different from hers. Padma preferred precise, measurable methods. She had never even thought about discussions with the elves, considering her lack of aptitude for… conversation. But she did have respect for anyone that did.

“I’m all set to do the first two interviews next week,” Hermione said brightly as she got up from her chair. “Now excuse me, I’ve got to dash to the ladies’ room.”

After Hermione had left, Padma snatched a nearby napkin and a pen and started writing vigorously. A few not so well-known references had come to her mind when Hermione had mentioned her problem. Her previous resentment forgotten, Padma was suddenly more excited about Hermione joining their team. She could make use of a social studies perspective in her own research. She scribbled so intently that she barely noticed when Hermione sat back down at the table.

She was about to hand Hermione the list of references when something caught her eye. Hermione had apparently touched up on her lipstick because her smile was now a soft shade of pink. That was strange. Padma didn’t recall Hermione wearing any before. Or ever, as matter of fact. It did look good on her, however.

“I, er… How do you plan to process the data?” Padma asked, shaking her head at the momentary lapse in focus.

“Well, my background is in soft sciences,” Hermione admitted somewhat sheepishly. “What with my work in S.P.E.W. and P.U.K.E. and other organizations, I’ve never really worked with numerical data. That’s why I’m particularly eager to make use of your expertise when I begin to analyse the statistics in light of the interviews.”

Padma grabbed another napkin from a nearby table and started scrawling.

“I think you might want to look at Brigham’s Theorem of Power,” Padma said, shoving the napkin at Hermione. “Here, see this diagram? It represents the distribution of power in society from a mathematical perspective.”

Hermione took the note, brushing Padma’s hand as she did. “Hmm. Shouldn’t that arrow go both ways?” she said and snatched the pen from Padma’s other hand. What ensued was a growing pile of napkins crammed with little scribbles, Padma’s slanted scrawls filling the space next to Hermione’s elegant ones. Half an hour passed quickly, napkins flying back and forth across the table and both women in a heated debate. They didn’t notice when the barista walked by them and took the napkin holders on the adjacent table to a safer location.

“You know, this is why I’ve always thought it would be nice to date someone in the same field,” Hermione said, and shot a strangely meaningful glance at her. Padma stopped writing and looked back at her. “It would be lovely to come home and talk about work and have somebody actually understand. That’s one of the reasons Ron and I didn’t work out. He just wasn’t interested in anything that matters to me, you know?”

“I did go to the Yule Ball with him,” Padma said, and gave a wry half-smile. “So I know a little about his total lack of interest in interesting conversation topics.”

“Oh, I almost forgot about that,” Hermione laughed.

“It wasn’t the most memorable night,” Padma said and smiled properly for the first time that day. “But I didn’t mind. I’m not into wizards anyway.”

“Poor Ron. That makes two of his past dates that have later turned out to prefer women,” she said. “Another cup?” She gestured at Padma’s mug and got up when Padma nodded. “It’s on me.”

Padma watched Hermione walk to the counter to place their order, and then grabbed the napkin of references she had written before. She scribbled something at the bottom, suddenly hopeful and a little frantic. She wasn’t sure if she was reading too much into things – it’s not like she had experience of such things – but she and Hermione seemed to be getting along better than expected.

“Here, I made you a list of references,” Padma said, taking the fresh cup of coffee from Hermione’s hand. Her heart pounded slightly louder than normal as she passed Hermione the note, but she tried her best to ignore it. “I included my address, if you ever want to owl me, or come over.”

Hermione’s warm eyes connected with hers, and her cheeks glowed beautifully.

“I’d like that very much,” she said and tucked the napkin into the folds of her cloak.

Padma knew she was probably about to commit a conversational crime, but her inner academic wouldn’t rest until she knew for sure.

“You’ve been flirting with me, am I right?” Padma said. “Why me?”

“Well, I always did find you hot,” Hermione said, laughing a little. “But I think what really piqued my curiosity was when I read that article about your research in _The Journal of Magical Research_. I knew I had to get to know you better then.”

“You really do know how to flatter a Ravenclaw,” Padma said, feeling her cheeks go red. She gulped down the rest of her coffee, hoping Hermione was too distracted to notice how flustered she was.

“Back to work?” Hermione said, smiling. She placed her empty cup of tea next to the cold, forgotten one from before. 

“Back to work,” Padma said.


End file.
